Posters featuring a "baby scan" of Jesus with a halo are to appear at bus stops and on billboards to remind people of the real message of Christmas, a Christian charity has said.

Adverts carrying the words "He's on His Way - Christmas starts with Christ" will be displayed at locations around the country until December 27, ChurchAds.Net said.

The charity, previously known as the Churches Advertising Network (CAN), said the poster campaign will be accompanied by two 30-second radio adverts to run on national and some local commercial stations, "telling the Christmas story in a modern setting".

One takes the form of an airport announcement and the other an answerphone message from Joseph.

Spokesman Francis Goodwin said: "The adverts have a powerful image with eight words that manage to communicate the unique combination of humanity and divinity that Jesus represents.

"This is a celebration of his birth and our objectives are simply to help people focus on the Christian message and story of the nativity."

Church groups and individuals have been buying poster sites through the internet and donating to the national campaign, which aims to display the advert on 2,000 billboards.

Mr Goodwin added: "At the moment we have funds for about half of the campaign but donations and bookings are still coming in and we are still hoping to hit our ambitious target.

"In addition to the paid-for media we have also distributed 40,000 A3 window posters via The Universe newspaper and have radio adverts running on commercial stations nationally.